Give your desktop a custom look

There are several ways to give your desktop—the background area of your screen—a custom look.

Change the picture you see on the desktop

In Desktop preferences, you can choose the picture that’s displayed on your desktop. Your Mac comes with dozens of desktop pictures to choose from, but you can also use your own pictures, or choose a solid color.

Tip: To quickly use a picture you have in the Photos app, select the picture in Photos, click the Share button in the Photos toolbar, then choose Set Desktop Picture.

Pictures and colors that come with your Mac: Click the disclosure triangle next to Apple, then select Desktop Pictures or Solid Colors.

Your pictures: Click the disclosure triangle next to Photos (or iPhoto if available). If your pictures are in the Pictures or another folder, click the triangle next to Folders, then select a folder.

To add a folder, click the Add button , navigate to and select the folder, then click Choose.

If you don’t see anything when you select the folder that contains your pictures, the pictures might not have the right file format— JPEG, PICT, TIFF, or PNG. To change a picture’s format, open it in the Preview app, then save it in the new format. If pictures look fuzzy, try using larger ones, such as 1024 x 768 pixels.

On the right, click the picture you want to use.

The desktop immediately changes, so you can see how the picture looks. When you use one of your own pictures, you can choose whether it should fill the screen, be centered, or be otherwise arranged. It’s easy to click around and try different pictures and arrangements until you find the one you like best.

If you can’t settle on just one picture, you can cycle through all the pictures in a folder. Select the “Change picture” checkbox, then choose how often you want the picture to change—for example, every hour. This option may affect the performance of some apps, such as games, that use many graphics. To use just one picture again, deselect the checkbox.

You can use a picture you see on the web as your desktop picture. Control-click the image, then select Use Image as Desktop Picture.

Use a screen saver

In Screen Saver preferences, you can choose a screen saver to hide the desktop when you’re away from your Mac.

Click a screen saver on the left, then set options for how it will look.

Source: Click the pop-up menu, then choose the pictures to show in the screen saver. You can use pictures that come with your Mac or choose pictures from your Photo Library or another folder.

The preview area shows how the screen saver will look; give it a moment to preview your selection.

Shuffle slide order: Select the checkbox to show pictures in a random order instead of their order in the source.

Set other options for the screen saver.

Start after: Click the pop-up menu, then select the amount of time you want your Mac to wait before starting the screen saver. For example, if you select 5 Minutes, the screen saver will start after your Mac is inactive for five minutes.

Show with clock: Select the checkbox to show the time in the screen saver.